


The Diary of Malva Meadowdancer

by Retjia



Series: The Diary of Malva Meadowdancer [1]
Category: Dungeons & Dragons (Roleplaying Game), Dungeons & Dragons - All Media Types
Genre: Based On a D&D Game, Characters play D&D, D&D Diary
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-10
Updated: 2019-08-29
Packaged: 2020-06-25 20:15:13
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 15,425
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19753051
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Retjia/pseuds/Retjia
Summary: This is a diary for my Halfling Ranger, Malva. It's based on my notes taken during our Dungeons & Dragon sessions, and her entries are divided as such as well.Our campaign is Dragon Heist, so if you comment - please, no spoilers!





	1. Entry 1: Lost human and a purple spoon

**Author's Note:**

> This is a diary for my Halfling Ranger, Malva. It's based on my notes taken during our Dungeons & Dragon sessions, and her entries are divided as such as well.  
> Our campaign is Dragon Heist, so if you comment - please, no spoilers!

** Entry 1 **

So, I've been here in Waterdeep for about a week now. It's a nice place, and The Yawning Portal where I stay has good food and proper ale (I can recommend it)! Bonnie the barmaid keeps the ale coming as I write, and while she is rather timid, there is something about her that says that she has seen the world a bit, and wouldn't really choose to be a barmaid if she had her dream job. I like her, she has become a good friend over the days.

I've encountered a few other adventurers as well, let me tell you about them!

There is an Aarakocra (basically a bird person) called Ru, who has the look of a majestic snowy owl and she wields a staff.  
Another one is a Wood Elf who doesn't look like she does much fighting (Bella would call her scrawny but she calls everyone scrawny), and wears a hood and cloak. Her name is Aire.  
The last one is a half-elf named Thalenai. She doesn't speak much, and she has a very barbaric look to her with furs, warpaint and messy read dreadlocks.

\-----

So, a bar fight broke out. No biggie, but there were these five humans that went after Yagra Stonefist (a half-orc that is proper badass), and you know.. it wasn't a fair fight. We intervened and stopped the fight before they could kill her, which they were trying to do! All good yeah? No. Out of the big well in the middle of the tavern (where it got its name from) emerges a big green troll - covered in grossness and some mosquito-like things. Durnan, the bar keeper, steps in with a sword and starts fighting the troll and tells us to handle the flying pests. Which we do!! Mind you, my skills at fighting at close quarters are still nothing to brag about.. especially with flying things! I'm short dammit!

The fights ends with Aire setting the troll on fire, and Durnan forcing it back into the well. After that a man approaches us, congratulating us on the good fight and offering us a job - he lost a friend, see. This man has a big hat, fancy clothes, and a huge mustache (bigger than Rolf's even). Anyway, his friend Floon Blagmaar (who is apparently rather stupid, but a beautiful man) has gone missing and he wants him back. We accept the job with a payment of 10 gold upfront and a promise of tenfold the sum when we return with Floon. We also find out that this man is Volothamp Geddarm, a famous author.  
The info we have to go on is that a few nights ago they were at a tavern down in the docks, called The Skewered Dragon. Floon met an unknown friend there, who had red-blonde hair and fancy clothes - just like Floon. Humans both of them.

Well, we set out and head towards the tavern in the docks, however the City Guard has blocked off the streets we were going to use - 6 dead bodies lie on the road. They were dressed in the "general bad guy" style with dark armor. The guard has arrested 3 people. Ru takes flight and checks it out from the sky (SO COOL I KNOW RIGHT??).  
We pass a shop that sticks out like a sore thumb - it is all painted purple. All of it! There is a stuffed Beholder in the shop window..also purple. It's called Xoblob's Shop.

Finally we make it to the tavern in the docks, it's a messy and run down place. I would NOT recommend it at all. The ale is awful and I don't even dare to think of the food.. Mainly humans and dwarves seem to frequent it. Hard-working people, and of course some shady ones it seems.  
After being bribed with 2 gold, the barman remembers Floon from the other night. He met up with Renaer Neverember, the son of the former Open Lord of the city (Open Lord is like the ruling group's face outwards, because the group is secret. Silly, I know, but what can you do?). 5 guys had followed them as they left for the night, and these people are known to hang out in a warehouse with a symbol of a Snake with Wings painted on it. They also had that symbol tattooed on them. And they were bald. Bald seems to be a fashion here almost, since the bloke who drew a dagger on Yagra also were bald but he had tattoos of eyes on his head. Anyway the Snake symbol is the symbol of the Zhentarim who is like a gang, but professional, and they have been active a lot lately.

We don't find any traces of a struggle outside the tavern, so we decide to head to the warehouse. On our way we enter the super-purple shop, and BAM - once you enter it's like purple exploded in your face. It smells of lavender and there is quite a bit of purple smoke in it. The source of the smoke is a hairless gnome who smokes a pipe (yes purple). And his clothes are purple. His drawn-on eyes on his face are purple. He's pleasant and eccentric, but he sells just.. junk. Sorry mister but it's just junk. Purple junk.  
He shows us a trick, or rather a candle that can't be lit. Not even with Aire's magic can it be lit and apparently this is the whole point of it. I just... I don't know, I don't get it but he seemed happy about it so I guess it's nice? We ask him if he has seen anything a few nights ago, and describe Floon and his friend. The gnome says that he DID see something - two men matching the description were jumped by 5 men just outside his shop, and kidnapped. They were taken north, which seems to indicate the warehouse! Before we leave I purchase a brass spoon - yup, purple.

All the streetslamps are smashed on the way to the warehouse and the candles once inside have been taken it seems, except for one just outside the warehouse itself. I sneak up to the window and take a peek inside. There are some small birdlike creatures inside, black and raven-like, called Kenku. We decide to return during the night instead, so we head back to the Skewered Dragon. The ale is still horrible, and there are no alternatives. I really don't like this place.

Anyway so we head back during night time, and when we look inside we see these huge crates with dead bodies in them! So horrible! We can't pick the lock on the door, so Aire summons a magical hand and opens the window from the inside so we can climb in! Really clever thinking there I must say.  
When we get in we are quickly surprised by the Kenku, who had been hiding in the shadows. We fight them and to be honest, I didn't do much. That awful ale made me feel so bad I couldn't aim with my bow inside that messy place. But at last we got them all, and we decided to keep one alive so we could question it. I look around a bit and find a secret door, and inside is a small room with 4 beautiful paintings of cities and a lot of silver bars (15 of them) that totals at 750 gold in value! The pictures are about 75 gold a piece.  
Having looked at them I hear a strange muffled sound coming from under the stairs in the room, as if someone or something is trapped in the cupboard under it!


	2. Entry 2: Poop-water, new boots and a manor

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a diary for my Halfling Ranger, Malva. It's based on my notes taken during our Dungeons & Dragon sessions, and her entries are divided as such as well.  
> Our campaign is Dragon Heist, so if you comment - please, no spoilers!

** Entry 2 **

  
Back to the cupboard! So, we open the door, and inside is a young man. He is bound and gagged, and his once fine clothes are rather dirty. We cut off his bonds and I offer him some bread which I have in my pack. This is Renaer Neverember! Not who we were sent to find, but it still feels good to be able to free the man. In my excitement I show him the secret room with the silver and the paintings (in hindsight it might have been better to keep it quiet, but what is done is done). He tells us that he and Floon were separated as soon as they arrived to the warehouse, and he can offer no help as to where Floon might have been taken.  
Talenai walks over to the bound kenku, and intimidates it to tell us what became of Floon. This works surprisingly well considering that kenku can only repeat what they have heard being said.  
"Tie up the pretty boy in the back room. Follow the yellow signs in the sewers!" is the gist of what it says between squawks. "Xanathar sends his regards!"  
After making sure Renaer isn't mortally wounded, we search the cupboard he was being held in, and find an envelope with an arcane mark on it. This is what is called a Magic Paper Bird (cute, right?), and if you write a message on the paper that comes with it and whisper the name of the recipient it instantly transports to the one who is supposed to have it!  
Our fascination with this thing is cut short as we hear heavy footsteps on the upper floor. Ru sneaks up to take a peek and sees that the City Guard has now entered the building. We hurry to take some silver bars and hide them on our person (we need money, come on, give me some cred for even finding them in the first place). Thalenai manages to hide 4 of them in those furs of hers, and the rest of us takes one each. I then close the secret door again.  
Suddenly 5 or 6 guards break down the door to the warehouse, and the ones we heard from the upper floor come down the stairs. The Captain talks to us after confirming we are not a threat, and we explain our business here. He seems to be a tired man, and I think he is rather fed up with the situation in the city, with the gangs and blood flowing on the streets. Poor man. Renaer talks to the captain and it seems like they know each other, the captain immediately calling Renaer "Lord Neverember". I guess being the son of a ruler does make aware of who you are. All is resolved, and the guard agrees to escort Renaer back to his mansion, to make sure he is safe. The young Lord thanks us once again for our timely rescue, and lets us know where his mansion is, and tells us that we can find him there whenever we want. He wishes us luck in finding his friend, Floon.  
We make our way out of the warehouse, find an entrance to the sewers, and get down there. It's pitch black so Ru lights a torch. Those of us with elven heritage can see rather well, but to me it's just... dark? And smelly. The "floor" is covered in sewage water, as once would expect I guess, and Thalenai picks me up by the scruff and carries me to keep me from stepping in the poop-water. Kind of her, but my neck will probably be rather sore where my cloak cuts in. Ru softly flies above the water, and it's clear that wings are nice to have sometimes.

  
The yellow sign that the kenku mentioned is visible on one of the walls we pass, and we follow it. It's shaped like a circle with lines outside of it, rather like you would draw the sun when you were a kid. We walk on (or I get carried.. and Ru flies..), okay two of us walk on! We come upon a 3-way intersection and spot a Gazer, which is like a miniature Beholder. Thalenai drops me with a loud and disgusting SPLOSH, and we fight it. My arrow fells it, and it seems the bad effect of the horrible ale is disappearing (or maybe sewers is my thing and we never knew?). Our barbarian picks me up again, and we find another yellow sign and follow it. Eventually we come upon a stone door after having sneaked past what seems to be guard-holes. We open it and sneakily kill the goblin sleeping on his watch. Okay, not really sneakily as Thalenai stabs her whole sword through the neck of the creature, and it dies instantly. I take a pair of boots from the goblin, and swap them for my poop-water-covered ones. They're not really comfortable, but at least they are not drenched in gross water.  
Onwards we march through the sewer complex, and after a while we come upon another stone door and hear two men talking behind it. Ru tries to take a peek by opening the door, but one of the men notices and slams the door open. The owners of the voices are a dwarf, and the human man who started the fight with Yagra back in the bar! A fight ensues, and Ru takes a lot of damage, poor bird. Thalenai rages (impressive stuff, and I would NOT want to be on the other team when that happens), and we eventually beat them! The human man tries to escape through a door in the back, but one of my arrows finds him, and ends his life. The dwarf meets his end at Thalenai's sword when she chops his head off.  
We open one of the doors in the back, and find a latrine - ew! The smell is horrible, and to top it all off there lies some goblin corpses in there, and someone or something has cleaned the meat right off the bones. It doesn't look right AT ALL. Decomposition doesn't work like this, we all know that, so Thalenai takes the head of the dead dwarf and tosses it in the room. A maw made of dirt, shit, and water comes up and swallows the head whole. NOPE. NOPE. NOPE!! We close the door, and leave that thing alone.  
We go through the other door, and find a steep flight of stars which we climb. A big room opens up before us, and we see a half-orc standing with his foot on Floon's chest. Floon is on the floor crying, poor boy. He looks rough, and I don't want to imagine what has been done to him. Upon a big seat in the back of the room sits a Mindflayer with a small brain-creature (an Intellect Devourer) in its arms, like a parody of a person with a kitten.

Fight time!  
The intellect devourer attacks Thalenai, and a strange look comes upon her face, it takes half a second before we realise it's a small smile. I follow this up with an arrow to the half-orc who stands there with his hands aflame in a show of magic-ness (that's a word now, shush). Ru tries to attack the brain but it is too fast for her, and Thalenai goes once more into a rage and slams her sword down onto the devourer - but it seems to not take any damage at all! The mindflayer just... leaves. Yes, it opens a door on the right wall, and just glides through. Bye bye! Mind you, fighting that thing would have been the end of us all. The half-orc, having shifted his attention to us instead of Floon, sends a cone of fire towards us and knocks BOTH Thalenai and Ru unconscious. Shit, shit, shit - it's up to me now! I send an arrow towards him and down him, but being what he is he gets up again. Stupid orcish heritage and their getting-up-again-thing. Floon rushes over and manages to stabilise Thalenai, and as a response to his refusal to die, I send a fast arrow into the half-orc's left eye and he goes down. Permanently.  
I quickly take a spellbook from the magic wielder, and together me and Floon drag my friends down to a small dark room where we can take a breather. Both of them are stabilised by now, and this is very much not a good situation to be in!  
Floon tells me how his captors have tortured him and wanted information about a treasure, to which Floon only reacted with confusion. He doesn't know about any treasure, he assures me. After this short talk he passes out and I'm left alone in the dark with three unconscious allies. It's like after a bad night out, isn't it?

  
While keeping watch I find a stone in the wall that looks odd. I shift it a little, and in doing so I open a secret door. I light a torch, and make sure the others are okay. Then I go into the corridor to take a look at what I have discovered. Floon is awake by now and promises to keep an eye on the others while I explore.  
At the end of the corridor I find three barrels of ale - good ale! Yum! I take some, but being cautious as for all I know it might be poisoned. Next to them is a wooden door, which is strange because every other one has been made of stone down here. I pick the lock, and inside is just a long set of stairs. I sneak up a little, but it just goes on and on. With nothing more to find, and not feeling up to fighting more baddies, I go back to the small room where the others are resting. Floon however is gone. Idiot, I told him to stay! I head back up to the bigger room where we fought earlier, and I find him rummaging through something by the big throne the mindflayer sat on. He has found a small wooden box that seems to contain something of use. Sadly my lockpicking skills are, well, useless (I think I got lucky with that door earlier), so we can't get it open. We take one last look around before we head back to the others, and wait for them to wake up. During this time me and Floon share some ale that I brought back (just a cup each) and talk. That man is seriously shallow let me tell you!

Finally the others come to consciousness, and when I tell them about my exploration Thalenai sets off and comes back with two barrels of ale. She downs one in what seems like one gulp, that woman can drink! Ru manages to open the wooden box, and we find some money inside it and two healing potions... which would have been nice to have earlier. Ah well, better late than never I guess?  
We gather our strenght and head back through the sewers, me being carried again, and Floon whining constantly about how gross it is down here. Thalenai eventually throws him over one of her shoulders, and he seems happy about not having to walk in the poop-water, at least. None of us really remember the way back, and we must have taken a wrong turn somewhere because we find ourselves exiting into a cellar. Despite the early hour of the morning ( it's like 4 or something), there are sounds and voices coming from the floor above. We take our chances and head on up, entering a kitchen filled with the most AMAZING scents. Forgetting that we are covered in blood, poop-water, and whatnot, I just have to ask about the bread they are baking. I think there is honey in it, there has to be! In their confusion the kitchen workers refuse to tell me anything about the bread, and it might be because of us just popping up like this. I'd hate to think they want to keep such wonderfully crafted bread all to themselves!  
We try to explain who we are and why we are in their cellar, but they won't listen - not even to Floon. As they call the guards, Thalenai slams down 10 gold onto a counter, and tells them that the guard is not needed. 10 gold would shut up a Lord (okay maybe not, but almost.. maybe), and the guard is told that nothing is out of the ordinary. Phew! We get chased out through the front door of what we now see is a tavern called The Spouting Fish, and make our way back to The Yawning Portal. Once there, we take a bath and then head to bed. Come think of it I'm not sure if aarakocra bathe as we do, and Thalenai didn't seem bothered by the poop and blood. So maybe just me and Floon took baths then.

We sleep until noon, and then meet up in the tavern again. There we find Volo and Floon sitting together with filled tankards, happily chatting. Floon looks very different having bathed and styled his hair. We join them and Bonnie comes over with food and drinks for us, bless her.  
After telling Volo of our adventures (Floon had already made himself sound a lot more important than a whining blob of posh-ness), we come to the talk of our reward. As suspected, Volo can't pay the 400 gold he promised us, but he tells of some papers he has which should more than compensate for the gold. These papers are the deeds to a manor called Trollskull Manor here in the city, and he would happily give it to us as reward for saving his dear friend. Needless to say we are rather sceptical of this deal, I mean it could be in ruins, or haunted, or the true property of the gangs or.. yeah. So we ask Volo a lot about this manor, and after some ales and talk it all seems to be legit. Sure, it needs work but it's a non-haunted manor. We accept the reward!  
We own a MANOR! Can you imagine??


	3. Entry 3: Guilds and neighbours

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a diary for my Halfling Ranger, Malva. It's based on my notes taken during our Dungeons & Dragon sessions, and her entries are divided as such as well.  
> Our campaign is Dragon Heist, so if you comment - please, no spoilers!

**Entry 3**

Apparently there needs to be an official meeting to sign the manor over to us, and Volo is going to set it up. That’s probably for the best, as none of us knows where to even begin with such a task. 

We head out to take a look at the manor, located in the North Ward. This is a fancy area, the kind where people have servants - but not so fancy that the servants have servants, you know? I’d say lower-upper class, or upper middle class. Nice area, anyway! Most buildings seem to be houses of business with owners living upstairs.

We find Trollskull Manor on Trollskull Alley (named after the manor). It’s run down and looks abandoned - a ghost of its former glory. But it’s big and has a lot of potential, so I guess it must have been rather nice at one point. The entry floor is an old tavern, and there is a total of four stories to the building, plus five chimneys. The upper floors are clearly an add-on, and the stairs are on the outside of the building.   
We go inside, and it’s a mess! Everything is covered in dust, and what once were the furnitures of the tavern are broken and strewn about. It smells old, like when you have been away visiting relatives and come home… but a thousand times that! Aire casts a spell to detect magic, as it would be rather silly to walk into a trap the first thing we do. No reaction. 

We open the hatch in the floor and check out the cellar. This was clearly used to store wine and ale, but sadly all of that has gone sour, and there are a lot of broken bottles. It looks like the whiskey and the other finer spirits have been taken, though. Since we find nothing down there, we head up again, but just after we shut the hatch, me and Aire hear the sound of glass breaking from the cellar. Ru sneaks down to see what happened, but nothing has changed apart from one more bottle being broken down there. Aire heads down again as well, but doesn’t see anything either. Thalenai throws a few broken stools into the fireplace and gets a fire going, it’s rather cosy actually, and gives a sense of life to the place. 

I head up and have a look around - no point in delaying! Upstairs is a lot fresher let me tell you, sure it’s all abandoned and dusty, but there are no furniture and with a proper cleaning (and new furniture) this would be livable. Looking around I find nothing of worth, so I head up one more floor. The third floor is the same - abandoned but not in need of too much work. Up the tower I go, and the view is gorgeous! I can see to the north, south and west, and have an excellent view of the city. It’s so pretty! A griffon flies past with one of the city guard on its back, as in an attempt to make the scenery even prettier.

We converge in the taproom again (the tavern), and discuss what to do. There is much talk about the idea to open up the tavern - or not, but to me it feels like that is a conversation best left for later. I pick up some of the silver that we put down as we entered the manor (we still haven’t gotten rid of it), and head out to see if I can find someone to purchase it. I also want to see what’s around, greet the neighbours and such, you know! Thalenai joins me. 

Our neighbours are the following businesses: 

The Bent Nail - Woodworker’s Shop  
Steam and Steel - Blacksmith  
Corellon’s Crown - Apothecary  
The Tiger’s Eye - ?? (there is just a sign with an eye on it, no window - nothing)  
The Bookwyrm’s Treasure - Bookstore  
Frewn’s Brews - Bar

Aire and Ru join us, and we have a discussion about where to go. We decide to visit the anonymous place that is The Tiger’s Eye, and find out what it is. We knock on the door, and a human male in his late 30’s - early 40’s opens the door. He is wearing a fine suit and smokes a long, thin pipe. Upon asking what business he runs, he tells us that he is a private investigator! It’s clear to us that he is only interested in things if he gets paid to be interested, but we introduce ourselves anyway. He chuckles when we tell him that we are the new owners of Trollskull manor, and wishes us luck in restoring the place. He also hopes that we get the tavern going again, so that more “honorable folk” come visit here, as he seems fed up with all the rich people. His name is Vincent Trench, which I should have written before all this… ah well!

We leave The Tiger’s Eye, and head to the blacksmith nearby. There is smoke billowing out from the windows, and it seems to be a busy place. We enter and see a fire genasi (like a mix between an elemental and a humanoid) working the forge, and the humanoid part of this one is elven. We start talking to him, and he shouts for “Avi” - after a few seconds another genasi appears. This is an air genasi with human ancestry. As he speaks his voice is like the wind itself, and rather fascinating to listen to. We show them the silver we are carrying, in hopes that they would like to purchase it, and after some talk about the quality they agree to buy it off us. We get 350 gold for the silver bars (which is about 88 gold each), and we finally get rid of it. Avi asks if there is more silver. There is, obviously, but we have no idea if we'll be able to get to it again, so we give him a cautious 'maybe', and a promise that he'll be the first person we'll bring the potential silver to, should we find some. He mentions selling it, or giving it, to the Guild. Apparently there is a guild for EVERYTHING here in Waterdeep. Like, Workers’ Guild, Innkeepers’ Guild - you get the point. But like.. sneeze here, and you need a permit from a guild!   
Anyway, Avi is very pleasant and recommends that we visit Tally over at The Bent Nail if we want help with furnishing and new doors for the manor. As we leave, we hear Avi teasing Embric (the fire genasi) about being so grumpy. 

Having discovered a buyer for the silver, we head back to the warehouse to pick up the rest of it, still hidden in the secret room. On our way there I make sure to stop by a shop and get a new pair of boots - finally! No more goblin boots! The new ones are very comfy and fit me perfectly. They’re dark leather boots with a grey fur trimming up top, and the craftsmanship is excellent! Happy days! 

The warehouse looks the same as when we entered last time, but the crates filled with dead bodies are gone, and so is the blood from the fight. Aire opens the window with a magic hand once again (still cool), and we get through. Thalenai decides to stay outside and keep watch. I walk over to the secret door and open it… and a bell goes off upstairs as I do it. Crap! Also, the silver and the paintings are gone - double crap! 

We hear a soft voice coming from the top of the stairs and we see a Sun-elf standing there, looking down at us. This is a beautiful elf, and rather androgynous. He tells us that we stole from him, and he was expecting us to return to what he calls “the scene of the crime”. After a short conversation we find out that his name is Davil Starsong, and that he is one of the Zhentarim. He seems to be a high ranking person, carrying himself with importance and confidence. He mentions Yagra is one of his goons. He asks us where Thalenai is, since there was four of us before. We tell him it’s just us, but a short moment later Thalenai tries to sneak up on him from behind - and fails miserably. All of his focus shifts to her, and he offers us seats. No one sits down but me (it makes me a bit taller).   
Starsong begins to tell us about murders that have been happening in the Dock Ward, and that it became personal when one of his men was killed. It seems he wants us to solve this in repayment for stealing his silver. There has been three murders, all of the victims decapitated with a clean cut. Two of them were dock workers, and as said - one was his man. All of the victims were elves or half-elves.   
Starsong expresses a concern for the city, he loves Waterdeep and doesn’t want harm to come to his beloved home (his words, not mine). Fancy speak for a fancy man, I guess. He has no faith in the City guard, so he wishes for us to investigate the matter, and kill the murderer. He wants no credit for getting rid of this murderer, and he suggests that we leave the body where the guard can find it, with a note attached to it or something. When the killer is dead we are considered even, but if we ever steal from him again, he will not be so kind.

After this very passive aggressive meeting we head to the Yawning Portal to get some food. It’s crowded as usual, and we get our ale and our meals. Ru talks a bit to a human cleric named Obaya Uday who she seems to know a little, Thalenai goes over to sit by Yagra. Aire challenges the bard, Threestrings, to play the hardest song he knows. He only has three strings on his instrument, hence the name. I go over to sit by Volo and Renaer. Volo is writing on his new book, and they are both well and happy. Floon has gone elsewhere to drown his recent trauma in drink and uhm, “company”. We chat a little, and Volo tells me that he has set up a meeting (for the hand-over of the manor), with Magister Silmerhelve at 11 the following day. He confesses that the manor has probably not been lived in for hundreds of years, and shifts a little on the “not haunted” aspect of the place. He doesn’t know if it is haunted or not, but thought we wouldn’t agree to a deal if he said that. 

We meet up after our respective conversations (yes, Thalenai got Yagra to have an actual conversation!), and talk about how to best go about this elf-murderer business. Aire, being the smaller one between her and Thalenai, and being an elf, agrees to play bait. Thalenai wouldn’t look a good target really, she’s to muscular. 

We all take a nap, and as night comes, we head down to the docks to catch a killer! There is a good number of people moving about the streets, but as night wears on and the first morning light creeps up, we realise that this is not the night. We head back to the tavern, and get some rest.

The day after we head to the meeting with the magister, and it all goes well. We pay a tax of 25 gold, and she officially signs the manor over to us. Volo and Renaer are there as witnesses, and it’s nice to have them there. If we decide to open the tavern the Innkeepers’ Guild will need to be notified and sign off on it. All these guilds! Renaer tells us that he is friendly with someone in that guild, and will send them over to us at the manor to talk about it. 

We get back to the manor and look it over once more. Ru and Aire start sweeping the floors, and Thalenai goes berserk (literally?) on the remaining furniture. In the middle of it all she stops, and when we ask what’s wrong, she says that the chair she was aiming for moved, causing her to miss it. She gets into an argument with Ru and Aire who say that she just missed, simple as that. Thalenai responds with a simple “I don’t miss”, and regarding chairs I have to agree - she wouldn’t miss even blindfolded. (Make a note to test that someday perhaps? But stand far back, just in case).  
The topic of the manor being haunted comes up, with the bottle smashing and now the chair moving, so Ru and Aire head to one of the temples to book an exorcism. Better safe than sorry, and none of us knows much about ghosts really. Someone will be over in four to five days time. 

Thalenai and I head to The Bent Nail to discuss new doors, windows, and furniture. A half-elven man greets us, this is Tally that the smiths told us about. He is pleasant to talk to, and tells us that he will happily help with restoring the manor. Should we need furnishing for the whole place he recommends contracting the guild (I guess it’s a woodworkers’ guild… all these guilds), because the job would be too much for him to handle alone. I ask him if he works with bows, and he does! Though, to get arrows I’m better of at a fletcher. He says he will be over to take the measurements for the doors, since Talenai’s “this big”, and waving her arms in describing the door’s size doesn’t work too well. While we get this done, Aire and Ru go to the smithy again, and place an order for locks for the front door. 

When the night comes, we once again go back to the docks, and once again use Aire as bait. I keep watch from the shadows, Ru from the sky, and Thalenai is stationed outside a bar, drinking whiskey while keeping an eye out. As the night goes on, the amount of people get less and less, which is to be expected. 

All of a sudden there is a loud BANG, and behind Aire is a Drow (dark elf with white hair, like the ones in Thornie’s stories when we were kids), hovering and holding a shield, and a gun that he has just fired. Aire is badly wounded, and she’s bleeding heavily from the gunshot. I cast Hunter’s Mark on the drow (something I picked up quite recently), and fire an arrow at him. The trap worked, let’s just hope no one actually dies! Ru swoops down from above and just misses him with her staff, but gets a good hit in with her talons. Thalenai, being the furthest away, starts running towards the commotion. Taking a deep breath Aire casts a spell of magical armor on herself, and it is badly needed. Our target shoots at Ru, who’s the closest to him, and she is badly hurt by the bullet. One more of my arrows finds its way towards him, and it’s clear that it hurt him a lot.   
Aire is now running away from the drow, towards me, and Ru drinks a healing potion to stay up. Finally Thalenai gets closer, and throws a javelin at him. With arrows and wounds clearly visible you would think that the drow’s magic would falter but no - he stays hovering above the ground. Aire turns around and casts magic missiles at him, it’s sparkly and pretty but I’m sure it hurts pretty bad! The drow takes a look at us and starts to fly higher - he’s trying to escape, to kill another day. I take aim, holding my breath: my arrow pierces his knee! The pain causes him to finally lose focus and he tumbles down to the ground, via a roof. He lies dead before us. Ru tosses the second and last healing potion to Aire who quickly downs it. Me and Thalenai have taken no damage and are fine. We write a note for the guards to find, as Starsong suggested, and quickly search the body before we leave it. He had nothing of value on him. The elf-killer of the docks is no more.

We head back to the Yawning Portal for some ale and a good sleep. When I get back to my room there is a calico cat sitting on the window sill! I try to lure closer, but it doesn’t seem to want to be petted. It sits down on the bed in front of me and opens its mouth… and out comes a voice. Not a cat voice, but a normal voice - talking. This cat is clearly a messenger of sorts!   
“You seem like someone who would fit the Emerald Enclave well. Interested? Come meet us at Phaulkonmere in the southern ward.”   
The cat then closes its mouth, and agrees to be petted. I ask it if they are all cats, to which it replies with a soft meow. After some cuddles it leaves through the window again, and I try to get some sleep. 

What a night…


	4. The Cleric and the Scarecrows

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a diary for my Halfling Ranger, Malva. It's based on my notes taken during our Dungeons & Dragon sessions, and her entries are divided as such as well.  
> Our campaign is Dragon Heist, so if you comment - please, no spoilers!

**Entry 4**

We get back to the manor the following day, and a crate with the rest of the silver bars are waiting for Thalenai in her room. There is no note but we know it’s from Starsong - a payment for the job we just did for him. Thalenai sells the silver to the smith, and we split the profit which is a good 100 gold each.   
Oh, and our new doors have been installed!  
As we are dividing up the gold evenly, there is a knock on the door. There stands a tall half-orc, at least twice my size, dressed in basic leather armor. I’d say he is middle-aged, for a half-orc. He introduces himself as Barmo, and tells us he has heard about our “ghost problem” from people in the temple, and he offers to help us. We invite him in and explain the situation. Now, I’m not too fond of orcs, but nor am I one to make quick assumptions!   
Before Barmo can get down to business with the spirit, there is another knock on the door. This time Volo greets us, and we invite him in too. Pleasantries are exchanged, and Barmo is quick to tell Volo that this manor has not been properly taken care of while in his possession. I really hope he won’t say the same after we have lived here for some time! 

Volo says he came over to make sure the manor is sufficient payment and that we hold no grudge against him for not paying us in gold. We tell him we’re perfectly fine with it, and all is well - except for the fact that the place IS haunted… and he said it wouldn’t be. So there’s that. Once we explain why Barmo is here, Volo gets super excited and starts questioning him about ghosts and such for his book, but Barmo says he doesn’t know much. During our conversation me and Barmo glance over to where the bar used to stand, and there is “Closing time!” written on the wall in dirt. It wasn’t there before. Realising that it’s time to get down to business, Barmo sits down, lights some candles, and quietly contacts his deity. Strangely for a half-orc, his deity is Cyrrollalee. Why such a man would have a halfling goddess as deity I do not know, but I can not blame him. I silently say a little prayer to her as Barmo finishes his ritual - it can’t hurt. 

It turns out that the spirit that resides here really, _really_ wants the tavern opened up again, and that’s why it’s being active. Volo is fascinated and makes notes in his papers so vigorously ink splatters his nose; he keeps on writing even after the ritual is over, and he's still at it as he finally walks out the door. The rest of us talks a little about how to tackle this.

I tell the others about the kitty-messenger, and apparently Aire has gotten a message too - but it’s an invite to the opera! We get no chance to discuss this any further though, as there is ANOTHER knock on the door. This time we find a halfling standing outside the door; he’s got a good size belly on him, and a nice beard. He introduces himself as Broxley Fairkettle, and he has a slight lisp. We invite him in, and I must say it’s wonderful to meet a halfling here, and not having to hurt my neck talking to someone. He takes a look around, says that he is from the Innkeepers’ Guild (Renaer’s friend!), and let’s us know the cost for the renovation of the place. 

1, 000 gold for renovation (including furniture)   
250 gold for Guild licenses   
50 gold per tenday for wages and maintenance   
10 gold per tenday for Guild expenses

We need to talk it over, and Broxley understands. He leaves us to it, and I bid him farewell and a good day in Halfling. I notice that when he responds in Halfling he doesn’t have a lisp.   
I miss home… 

  


Suddenly, Ru seems strange somehow, and we ask her what’s up. Apparently she has received a message through magical means to meet Vajra “Blackstaff” Safahr. As in NOW. I think it sounds like a trap, but Ru flies off instantly. Thalenai takes Barmo to buy some beds, and then onwards to the Yawning Portal. Me and Aire give her some gold to pay for our beds, and I give her clear instructions on how I want my bed. I mean, one can be an adventurer and still want to sleep well, right? Right! 

I head to the Southern Ward, and find a big house with an enormous garden - this is the Phaulkonmere to where I have been invited. The gate opens on its own when I approach, and the garden is so pretty! It’s stunning, the most beautiful I have ever seen! The calico cat comes to greet me, and lets me pet it a little before leading me through the garden. It guides me to what appears to be a shed, and outside is a half-elf man working with some plants. When he speaks I can tell it’s the same voice that came from the cat - this is the man who sent the invitation! He says that his patron cares for this beautiful garden, and also the city, but he won’t tell me who she is. The gardener’s name is Melannor Fellbranch, and he says he rarely leaves this place. I can’t blame him - it’s so pretty. We speak a little and it turns out that there are farms just outside the city walls that have been harassed lately. No people have died, thankfully, but livestock has been killed, and the farmers describe terrifying scarecrows as the source of this violence. Melannor, his patron, and the Emerald Enclave would be thankful for help. I agree to help, naturally! We fall into a conversation regarding height, and he says he is sad that he towers so far above the flowers he can barely smell them, and through this I find some new appreciation for my shorter statue! More lovely flower scents for me!

Me and my companions meet up at the Yawning Portal again, and I tell them of my meeting at the Phaulkonmere. Aire has gotten a mission to find a talking horse. Yup, a talking horse. I don’t know who is pulling her leg, but this city if any would have a talking horse. Ru’s mission is to travel up the mountain that Waterdeep was built by to meet a master monk, and take a message from him back to Blackstaff. Barmo has left the tavern by this time, and we decide to stay the night here at the inn. We see Yagra enter with a few men in company, she looks bruised and messed up - but she does that a lot. And by now we also know who she works for, so that explains it. 

The next day we meet Barmo at our manor (he and Thalenai had agreed to that last night before he left), and our beds have been delivered too. Thalenai carries them upstairs to our respective rooms, and the rest of us tell Barmo of our missions. He seems sceptical and I bet the thought “what kind of people have I found?” passed through his mind many times during this conversation. Ru flies off do to her thing, it’s quicker if she flies alone, and the rest of us head towards the farms.

Everything looks normal - crops planted as it should this time of year, and scarecrows. Lots of them. But they look… normal. Normal farms. Aire uses her skills to detect magic among the fields and she picks up some magical traces. Thalenai “kindly” (not at all, really) asks a farmer about information on the scarecrows, and he tells her where they were last seen. He also says that there have been some sheep killed recently. I start to track, since that’s what I do, and search the ground: soon enough I find strange claw-like footprints with straws in them. They lead the same way that Aire’s magical traces do. Barmo takes a good look at the scarecrows themselves, to get a hang of them. All of this takes us a long time, as the fields are vast and we don’t fully grasp what we are looking for (except “magical evil scarecrows”). 

After a while Ru shows up, and tells us of her mountain-monk meeting. It seems it went well! Barmo tries to speak some more to the farmer, but Thalenai did too good of a job with intimidating the poor man, and he wants nothing to do with us. Not even the kind cleric! I track a bit more, and find an area where there are empty bird nests - except that these ones shouldn’t be empty. This is wrong. Or right, since we’re looking for wrong. I don’t know. 

Aire gets our attention and points forward, there is a moving scarecrow right there! And two more in the woods just behind it! The one in the field has a rotting wrapped-up blanket for a head. One of the scarecrows in the woods is wearing a pumpkin head, and the other one is carrying a linen sack on top of its shoulders. Ru and I sneak into the forest part, and stealth towards them, while the others approach in the open field. As we move closer, a loud, creepy cackle emerges from the one in the field, spreading to the other two. It’s scary stuff, this!  
Barmo takes a second to bless himself, Thalenai and Aire in response to the cackle, and pumpkin-head starts running towards them. Me and Ru move closer as well, and I shoot an arrow at the running scarecrow, but since it’s made of hay there isn’t much effect to it. Bummer. Aire prepares for the fight by boosting her defence with her magic. We all move closer in order to get in fighting range, and eventually my Hunter’s Mark can reach pumpkin-head! I shoot him again, but that hay… it’s hard to make a dent in it with arrows, let me tell you. Now, Aire has the right idea here - she fireballs the scarecrow, and THAT is the way to go when fighting magical, evil hay-things. Just so you know (but, I’d rather not at all). The blanket-buddy scarecrow rushes towards Barmo who sends a sacred flame at it, but misses. In response Thalenai lunges at it, and hacks away at it in rage, but her sword seems to have little effect. I know the feeling… One of the scarecrows makes eye contact with her and its eyes light up, causing Thalenai to become paralyzed! Not good. Barmo does some more magic, this spell sounds like a bell and it seems rather effective. Ru gets in close and attacks with her staff and her talons.  
I shoot pumpkin-head in the, well, head, and it explodes. The hay falls limp to the ground. Poor Thalenai still can’t fight as she is still paralyzed. We kill off the other two scarecrows (Aire conjures another nice fireball that ends one cleanly), and then the paralysis finally lets go. 

These seem to be the only violent scarecrows around, and we feel good with a mission accomplished! We go back to the farmer’s house and let them know that the threat has been dealt with!


	5. KA-BOOM

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a diary for my Halfling Ranger, Malva. It's based on my notes taken during our Dungeons & Dragon sessions, and her entries are divided as such as well.  
> Our campaign is Dragon Heist, so if you comment - please, no spoilers!

**Entry 5**

Having helped rid the farms of evil scarecrows, we make our way back to the Emerald Enclave. My kitty friend meets us just inside the gate, and makes it clear that only I am allowed to follow it further. The others say that they will wait for me by the gate. Me and the kitty walk to Melannor’s shed, and find him inside making tea. He seems bothered by my presence, as if I am disturbing him. Mind you, tea is serious business so I ask him if he wants to finish his tea and have a cup, but he says no. He then tells me that he is going to take me to see Lady Phaulkon, and leads me into a glade further in the garden (this part looks more like a forest though). 

The glade is beautiful, and I take a seat on a stone bench set there. The sun shines in through the treetops, and it is a very serene place. Suddenly a voice rings out from everywhere, yes, everywhere, and it introduces itself as the Lady. She thanks me for the work I have done to help the farmers, and says her “little birds” have told her of my success. I’m not sure if they are actual birds, or if she’s just using a metaphor… both are completely plausible.   
She says she wants to thank me properly, and the cat I have come to know jumps up on the bench next to me. Is this the Lady, shapeshifted? When I ask it it just meows. I guess not. It lifts one of its front paws, and I take it in my hand. A warm, tingling sensation surges from the paw into my body, and where we touch there is a glowing light shimmering. It’s a wonderful feeling, and I know that I have been blessed with a Charm of Restoration (I can basically cast Greater Restoration, and/or Lesser Restoration, a limited number of times. Yay magic)! As the kitty withdraws its paw there is a faint glowing paw print on my palm, but it quickly fades. This is a proper thanks indeed, and I let the Lady know it - but I’m not sure where to direct my words, so I keep talking to the trees, and the grass, and the bushes and… yeah, I don’t know where she is, okay!?

The Lady tells me of another problem within the city she would like my help with. Apparently a Champion of Kelemvor, Sir Ambrose Everdawn, needs assistance in catching a necromancer that has been active in Waterdeep lately. He is working with the city guard currently, but my help would be very valued. I, of course, accept the plea for help. The Lady tells me that Melannor will provide me with tools to help with this, and bids me farewell.

Me and Melannor make our way back to his shed - once there, he tells me to wait, and slams the door in my face. I wait for quite some time and then gently knock on the door - he seems surprised to see me there, but finally gives me a wooden box with two vials in it. I can’t tell what it is, but maybe someone of my companions can. 

I meet up with them again, and Aire identifies the vials as two potions of healing! Always good to have, but rather foreshadowing considering why they have been given to me (along with the Charm I recieved). We make our way back to the manor, and Ru tells us about her next mission: she is to find a bronze dragon that has taken up residence in the water just outside the docks. We all kind of panic at the mention of a DRAGON, because… it’s a dragon! But bronze dragons tend to be good, so there’s that. I hope this one is, since none of us can breathe underwater and very much not fight a dragon. 

  
Renaer comes to visit, he has brought some food with him! We have a little picnic all of us (the cheese is so good!), and he suggests a partnership so that we can afford to renovate the manor. It’s a good idea, especially considering we don’t have a lot of money - and he is a rich and kind man. We thank him, but want to talk about it in private first which he totally understands. There is some wine that Renaer brought that is also very good, and we drink and talk. Aire asks him about Maxine (the talking horse she has to find), and Renaer knows of which she speaks. It’s a pale horse that works in the city, pulling carts and people. He also tells us that the gangs in the city have increased their activity since our business in the sewers, and tells us to be careful. I think he rather cares for us! Which he should, since we saved his life… but still. After we have finished our meal he heads home, and we go to bed. 

The bed Thalenai bought for me is however not what I asked her to buy, it’s just a standard human-sized bed. No soft pillow or anything extra. It’s just… big. Ah well, I’ll have to go to the Bent Nail and order a new one soon. 

Early in the morning we wake to a loud explosion just outside the manor! We peek out and see there is a big mess, dead people but no fire. I hop into my boots, grab my bow and quiver, and rush out. Yup, in my pyjamas. The others have rushed out too, in various degrees of clothed. 

There are 11 corpses on the ground, and I do remember them: 

  * One older female human who is a tenant here in the block.
  * Two male humans dressed in leather armors, and carrying swords.
  * Two female humans and one male half-elf, wearing servants clothing.
  * A male gnome clutching a dagger, and wearing a burnt cloak.
  * Four halflings (two male and two female), looking like musicians and dancers.



Someone is calling for the guard, and we quickly investigate before they arrive and shoo us away.

There is a halfling child standing and staring at the corpses, and he seems to be holding something in his hands. We approach him and talk to him, but he seems really scared. I calm him a little and we find out that one of the dead entertainers is his sister. He doesn’t seem fully able to process what has happened. His name is Martin, and when asked he begrudgingly shows us what he is holding. It’s a beaded necklace he found in the water barrel that he hid behind after the explosion. Aire recognises the beads as magical of the destructive kind - this might have been the source of the explosion. We know that the child can’t hold on to this, so Thalenai convinces him in her usual brutish way to give it to us, and Aire pockets it. The boy runs to the nearest guard, and after a short conversation allows them to see him home. At least the child is safe. 

We discuss what to do with the dangerous necklace, and after a bit a magister shows up: he’s a small, older human with a walking stick and glasses. He is accompanied by a big sergeant from the city guard. Ru takes flight, telling us that she has to let Blackstaff know what has happened, and flies away. 

Most people have left by now, having been questioned by the guard. The owner of the apothecary, a wood elf man, is still around, and so is a noblewoman. The magister and the sergeant speak to us, asking questions about what we have seen and heard. We don’t say anything about the necklace, as we are waiting for Ru to come back with directions from Blackstaff (who kind of runs the guard). At this point we find out the sergeant is called Barnabus Blastwind, and I can’t help but giggle a little. Hehe, farts. 

The noblewoman comes up to us and starts to complain about the situation, and none of us like her. She is classist and racist, and just pure snobbish. Her name is Lady Hornraven, and the only interesting thing she has to say is that she has seen something running on the roof - throwing something, just before the explosion. When asked to clarify, she says the thing looked like “one of those puppets you have at the festival”. The festival she is referring to is the Day of Wonders - a day where followers of Gond show off their new inventions. It sounds like a rather fun day. Ru comes back with strict orders to fully cooperate with the guards, so she and Aire hand the necklace over to the magister, explaining what we know about it. 

We go back inside as there is nothing more we can do to help, and get dressed. We have some breakfast in the tavern room, and Thalenai tells a story of a flying snake delivering a message to her during the night. Weird, I know, but why not? Things are weird anyway, so why can’t a flying snake deliver a note to a half-elf who can’t read? Apparently she had barged into Barmo’s room (he sleeps in the guestroom), demanding he read the note to her, thus finding out her mission. The mission is a simple “pick this up and drop it off at this location” errand. 

The magister we spoke to earlier comes knocking on the door and ask us if we knew the gnome with the burnt cloak, but we don’t. We talk a little about the “puppet”, and he says that it sounds like a Nimblewright. These are constructed at the House of Inspired Hands, which is a temple to Gond. As Barmo leaves to do the dishes, he sees that one of the pans has cleaned itself. Thank you, ghostie! Me and Thalenai decide to take care of her drop-off, and the others go to do some shopping. 

After some searching (me reading the signs and Thalenai plowing the way through the people in the streets), we find “Weirdbottle’s Concoctions” in the Trade ward. A scarred gnome with black hair stands behind the counter, barely making a move as we enter. After Thalenai explains why we have come, the gnome gives her a box - and keeps staring suspiciously at me the whole time. I don’t like him, to be honest. These vials are potions of mind-reading, and there are four of them in total.   
As we step outside, we see some kids running around, carrying troll-masks. We saw a few of them earlier by the Emerald Enclave, so we approach to find out what the masks are for. There seems to be a holiday coming up during which kids wear these masks as a costume in order to receive sweets or to do mischief. They all chant a rhyme and them run off, laughing.

We make our way to the God Catcher, one of the massive statues dotting the landscape of Waterdeep, where the box is to be dropped off. Thalenai says the note told her to give it to a lady in purple, so we browse the people there and eventually find a woman wearing a purple cloak, sitting atop a carriage. The drop-off is made, and the woman really has no sense of manners to tell you the truth. She whistles after checking the content of the box, and a few men join her on the carriage. She tosses Thalenai a pouch of coins as they leave towards north-west. Thalenai throws me a coin, a platinum!, and we decide to go and get drinks before heading back to the manor! Lots, and lots of drinks! 


	6. How dead can you get?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a diary for my Halfling Ranger, Malva. It's based on my notes taken during our Dungeons & Dragon sessions, and her entries are divided as such as well.  
> Our campaign is Dragon Heist, so if you comment - please, no spoilers!

**Entry 6**

We meet up at our manor the following morning, me and Thalenai are rather hungover. Aire tells us that her mission to find the talking horse went well, and I think she got what she wanted out of the meeting with it.  
In the middle of breakfast Broxley turns up, and wants to know if we have made a decision yet regarding the renovation and Renaer’s offer. We have, and tell him that we accept the offer, and he pulls out a scroll for us to sign. The damn scroll is about my size, and we all have to sign for EVERY SINGLE GUILD that is involved in this - and that’s quite a few let me tell you. After that’s out of the way, Broxley informs us that the work will take 12 days, that the guilds can provide staff for the tavern if we want them to, and that Renaer has paid the fees to the guilds up front. I offer him some food but he has just had a big breakfast himself, and declines. All of us chat a bit, and he emphasises how nice it will be to have a proper tavern in the North Ward again. When being asked if he knows someone who can sell us a troll skull, he chuckles and shrugs. It would be rather fitting to have one, though! He leaves with the parting advice of “don’t piss the butcher off if he shows up to discuss the meat deliveries”. Oh, okay...? 

Also, the troll mask holiday that’s coming up is called Troll Tide, and it’s a celebration of some big fight where a bunch of trolls were killed… I think, I wasn’t listening properly. 

After discussing the plans for the day, we head to Corellon’s Crown (the apothecary) nearby to inquire about potions of waterbreathing. If we are going to find Ru’s dragon, we are going to need them! Aire heads elsewhere to talk to her contact she met at the opera. 

The windows on the second floor of the apothecary building have shattered due to the explosion, and since it’s a greenhouse there was a lot of windows to shatter… The owner greets us as we step inside, they are a wood elf with long braided hair, named Fala Lefaliir. Thalenai speaks some elven with them, and while I can’t understand a single word, it’s still a beautiful sounding language. 

Fala asks us about the explosion. While we can’t provide any new information, Fala tells us that right after it happened they saw someone run up to the dead gnome, grab something from him, and then run off. All that Fala could make out was that the person was of human height. This is all getting stranger, and stranger… 

  
Ru and Fala get down to business, and we quickly find out that the potion of water breathing is a bit too expensive for us. On the other hand Fala has a couple of healing potions that Thalenai and Ru purchase. There are no potions on display, which is strange since this an apothecary, but rather a lot of plants of varying sizes and beauty. It’s a nice shop, and Fala is very pleasant to deal with. We ask if they know any way to traverse the bottom of the sea without drowning, and Fala tells us of a woman down in the docks who is known to have constructed a machine that allows just that! Sadly they don’t know a name, but it’s something to go on at least.

  


Our business concluded, we go to the City of the Dead to meet up with Aire, and deal with the nasty necromancer. The area is very foresty with both graves and mausoleums. We find Sir Ambrose Everdawn quite easily once we get there: he is a middle aged man, rather fit and wearing a heavy armor. He says he has been patrolling here for several days but haven’t had any luck, and that he thinks he can handle this on his own. He is clearly not impressed with the help offer, nor my companions. We come up with a plan to meet again at nighttime, and patrol together - he will take one are of the graveyard, and we the other. 

To pass the time until nightfall we decide to head to the docks and try to find the woman that Fala spoke of. On our way there we stop by the Trades ward to have some lunch. While we eat (we all have fish), I spot Floon walking on the street outside, heading towards the docks - he looks drunk and like he hasn’t dealt with his recent trauma of being kidnapped and tortured. The poor boy looks a mess, faking happiness, but it’s clear to me that it’s not genuine. A young elven couple next to us talk loudly about the explosion, making up one ridiculous reason for it after the other. 

We finish our meal, and make our way to the docks. We ask around about this woman and her machine, but it seems that no one knows of whom we speak of. I walk over to the water’s edge, stick my head into the water, and yell for the dragon. No response. Ah well, one can try… I get back with the others and inform them my plan wasn’t very successful. Ru takes pity on me, and dries my hair off with a piece of cloth.

Suddenly a small bird flies down towards us, stops in front of Aire, and turns into a letter! The message is from her contact: he writes that he will visit us tonight since Aire failed to reach him at his home earlier today. Aire uses the Paper Bird we found before to reply that we won’t be home tonight, and I have a feeling that we’re going to need the paper bird later. But what’s done is done (and it’s cool to watch the paper turn into a bird and fly off). 

We make our way to the temple of Gond - if anyone is going to know about a woman with a machine that can walk under water, it has to be someone there! The building looks like a cross between a temple and a workshop, with a big cog as holy symbol. As we approach it, we suddenly see a humanoid figure on the roof: soon it stands up, and releases a small metal bird into the air. The bird quickly makes its way towards us, and not knowing what is going to happen, I pull out my bow and shoot it to pieces with an arrow! There are cogs and springs all around us, and a few who saw the shot applaud and tell me what a good shot it was. I blush… as always when complimented. That’ll never change. Anyway, Aire picks up the pieces of the tiny robot - Ru’s looking at it with a tilted head, it’s clear she isn’t too happy with me shooting it. Thalenai pats me on the head and says I did good, it could have been a serious threat. I stand a little taller, and we enter the temple of Gond. 

There are 12 massive marble pillars lining the walls inside, each holding an invention. A bronze Dragonborn woman greets us, introducing herself as Valetta. She sighs as we tell her of the metal bird being thrown at us, and she knows who threw it. She leads us up a spiraling staircase (many, many steps!), until we finally reach a locked door. Valetta is clearly upset, and Thalenai suggests smashing the door in, which our guide thinks is a good idea. Barmo, on the other hand, takes the situation under control, and tries to reason with the one behind the door - would it please open. Valetta tells us that the one behind the door is someone called Nim. After a few silent seconds the door clicks open, and footsteps are heard scurrying away from it. 

We enter into a cluttered workshop with things everywhere. Nim is hiding behind some crates in the far corner. We tell them to come out, and out steps a nimblewright. This robot is roughly human in size, and clearly modelled after humans as well. Valetta is very angry with Nim, saying that this was his last chance, and his actions have now cost him his workshop privileges. It seems Nim has a very mischievous streak. The robot looks ashamed, shuffling his feet and staring at the floor. I bluntly ask him if he was responsible for the explosion outside our manor, simply because he was on the roof throwing something, and he makes some gestures with his hands. Valetta explains that Nim communicates through sign language, and his reply to my question is “no”. 

Valetta calls for assistance, and when people from the lower floor arrive, she orders them to start clearing out Nim’s workshop. This is like watching a family argue, it’s rather embarrassing. We ask about the lady with the machine, but no one here knows who we are talking about either. 

Nim and Valetta have a conversation in signs, and Valetta is getting more and more upset. Apparently Nim was feeling lonely and built himself a friend - a smaller nimblewright. This one was not created with the safety measures normally implemented, which makes it possible for it to roam free wherever it wants… and it’s been missing for a month. Nim is very human in his display of shame as he signs all this, and even more so when Valetta translates the information for us. 

They discuss some more, and it comes to light that apparently Nim has constructed a tracker for nimblewrights - this is given to us as a means to track down the missing one. Valetta gives us a promise of a 500 gold reward if we find and destroy it. Before we leave, Ru offers to come by and visit Nim, so that he won’t be so lonely anymore. She tells Nim that friends can be made in other ways than constructing them; then she goes to pluck a feather from her upper arm, and hands it to him. He looks at it, and carefully places it on his arm in the same spot Ru took it from. He seems very happy with this addition to his look! 

  


We return to the manor in order to grab some food and have a quick nap before the nightfall. At the door Renaer greets us with two bottles in his hands, ready to celebrate our partnership and the renovation to Trollskull Manor! We toast together to Trollskull Tavern as the tavern is to be named. Why make it complicated? We talk about Floon, and we learn that he occasionally works as an escort - or at least has been working as one. Renaer is worried about his drinking, but understands his reaction to recent events - kidnapping and torture is not common, after all. 

Volo has left the city, without a proper goodbye to us. I’m a bit hurt, to be honest. We enter upon the subject of the explosion, and after assuring our friend that we are not hurt, he says that we may be more involved in this than we thought. On his father’s orders there has been a gnome following Renaer for some time, exactly why I’m not sure - but Renaer and his father do not get along. The former Open Lord of the city stole 500,000 gold from the city while holding the position - and something called the Stone of Golorr is the key to the vault holding this fortune. The gnome was on a mission to find said key. Dalakar, the gnome, was probably on his way to us to ask for protection when the explosion ended his life. He had been followed by the Zhentarim lately, and seemed to think that the help we gave Renaer might extend to his father’s employee as well. Sadly, he was never to find out. 

After this worrying bit of information, and finishing the wine, we take a much needed nap.

  


Off to the City of the Dead we go! On our way we spot more kids with troll-masks playing in the streets, despite the late hour. We meet up with Sir Everdawn and spread out. It turns out we don’t have to search for long. As we reach the third mausoleum, there is a low rumble, as of earth shifting, and six skeletons spring out of the ground, flanking us. 

Ru is the first one to react, striking one in front of her with her staff, and it crumbles to pieces. Her next target nearly meets the same fate the instant after. I take aim, shooting an arrow at a third one. Two skeletons stumble up to Aire, and attack her with their swords, at the same time as two others do the same to me - but they miss! Perks of being small, I guess! Ru smashes her way through another skeleton, and one of my attackers. Three down, three to go! I draw my short sword, and attack the one on the left in front of me - this has a better effect than the arrows. A dense fog starts to creep out from the mausoleum next to us, but for now the skeletons have to be priority number one. Barmo channels his divine magic, and releases a burst of holy light that frightens the skeletons, and two of them start running away from him. Ru manages to hit one of the skeletons running, and smashes it to bits (usually Thalenai smashes things, is it Reverse Day?). I dodge another swing from the skeleton next to me, and Thalenai charges up to it in rage and completely destroys it! Thanks! 

The mist swoops down now: it envelops Barmo, and we hear a low grunt of pain from inside the cloud. I take a glance at the mist, but then I aim for the last skeleton still in the fight, and shoot at it. Sadly it doesn’t crumble, not yet. Barmo steps out from the mist and tries to attack it with his magic, but misses. Aire on the other hand channels fire magic, and unleashes a scorching ray upon it. The skeleton I shot runs back towards me, no longer fearing the holy half-orc and his magic. Thalenai leaves my side to go to the mausoleum, opens the door, and steps inside. What in the…? I’m sure she has a plan (at least I hope so). The cloud of evilness seems to sense the threat Thalenai poses inside the mausoleum, and flies over to envelop her like it did Barmo. The door starts to slowly close behind them, and Ru runs inside too. 

Finally I manage to down the skeleton next to me - no more skeletons, phew! Barmo summons a spiritual log (as you do…) and completely destroys the mist inside the mausoleum! He and Aire join the others inside the small crypt, and I stay outside. Thalenai starts bringing her sword down upon the lid of the coffin, smashing a hole in it. A foul smell escapes it, and we can see dust from a dead body long gone inside. On the inner walls of this mausoleum are several markings and symbols related to vampirism - which explains the extreme measures taken to seal the coffin. If a vampire dies it becomes mist, like the one we just fought, and if it manages to return to its “home”, it will be fully restored. If this vampire was the thing waking the skeletons (which is plausible), the problem seems to be over now. So, we killed a dead vampire… and vampires are undead, so we made the dead undead super-dead? Something like that, yeah. Anyway it’s very much dead now! 

Aire summons a magical hand and reaches into the coffin, scooping out a golden ring set with a black stone. It seems to her (with her knowledge of magic) to be a magical ring relating to shields, wards and similar things. 

Sir Everdawn joins us shortly after this, and is disappointed to not have been alerted earlier to the fight - he clearly wanted to prove his worth to us. We show him the coffin, and tell him of the vampire-mist we fought. He gathers that that was what was waking the skeletons, and is satisfied the problem has been dealt with. He is however not very happy at all with what has been done to the coffin - clutching his holy symbol of Kelemvor, he summons a golden flash of holy magic. After this he seems satisfied all is clear. Aire shows him the ring, and he urges her to leave it in the coffin as one can never be too safe around vampires. She produces a small vial of holy water, and cleans the ring before tossing it back into the coffin. Sir Everdawn turns to leave, muttering angrily under his breath about graverobbers. I turn to watch him go, and when he gets to the gate of the graveyard, he stops to throw a pouch of coin back to me. Inside is 200 gold, and we split it evenly between us - 40 gold each. 

We go back to our manor as the sun starts to rise above the horizon, and quickly head to bed. Just a couple of hours later we wake to loud construction noises coming from all over - the renovation has begun. We have a small breakfast on the stairs outside, and marvel at how quickly the carpenters work (mainly humans and halflings). It’s clear that 12 days is a very nicely estimated time plan for this project. Down the street we see a strange sight: Renaer coming running towards us with a look of urgency in his face… and we’ve never seen him run before.


	7. A crowned cleric and Gralhund troubles

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a diary for my Halfling Ranger, Malva. It's based on my notes taken during our Dungeons & Dragon sessions, and her entries are divided as such as well.  
> Our campaign is Dragon Heist, so if you comment - please, no spoilers!

**Entry 7**

Renaer approaches, he is out of breath but still trying to remain his dignified manner. He tells us that a man named Urstul Floxin, a high ranked Zhentarim member, matches the description of the man who grabbed something from the dead gnome just after the explosion. Urstul was seen running to the Gralhund villa, just around the corner from here. However, upon investigation Lady Gralhund says that they are not currently entertaining guests, and that no one is there. We discuss this information, and wonder if maybe the city guard is in on all of this, or at least a few guards. It’s getting more and more urgent by the minute, and all I wanted was to travel to find more recipes and stories… 

Renaer comes with the suggestion that we should enter the villa, get the stone from Urstul, and save the city with it. The stone in the hands of the Zhentarim is a scary thought indeed. Lady Gralhund is a very power hungry person - in the past she has tried to become the Open Lord even - so her being in on this together with Urstul is not too much of a stretch. 

We spend some time trying to come up with a plan to enter the house. Renaer is to get us troll masks, so we might use them as a distraction. There is talk of me pretending to be a child doing the Troll Tide thing, but I’m not too fond of the idea. Nor is Renaer, as he impresses on us the urgency of this, after all Troll TIde is still some days away.

Thalenai leaves the group in order to find a rat she can use as a spy, since she can now communicate with animals in some way. We need to get a lay of the land… or villa, I mean. Barmo seems rather upset by the idea of possibly breaking into someone’s home and potentially hurting people. He leaves to gather his thoughts and, I think, to pray.

Thalenai returns after a while, reporting that the villa is guarded by two dogs and their master. Inside the barracks by the house there were armors and swords scattered about, but no guards. The stable looked like, well, a stable. She says that the rat could not find a way inside the house, but there was a strong smell of blood by the front door. Not good. When making its way back to Thalenai, the rat attracted the attention of one of the guard dogs and was killed. Ru goes to get Barmo, and see how he is feeling. He says that he can’t enter the house unless he is welcome there, but he can wait outside for us to return. Considering that he is a follower of Cyrrollalee, I can’t blame him.   
To pass some time, I make us all a pot of tea - lavender and chamomile, with some honey. It reminds me of home, and creates a calming moment in this strange situation. 

We go to the back alley, where we decided to meet with Renaer once he got the masks, but he is not there yet. While we wait, we try out the nimblewright tracker we got from Nim, and it beeps faintly. At least it works. Ru flies up to the rooftops to keep a lookout, a risky move since the people in this neighbourhood call the guards on any little thing that is out of order. Eventually Renaer shows up, clad in commoner clothes (they suit him, even if they look odd), and with the masks for us all. Ru comes down, and we debate the best course of action. Barmo comes up with a great idea: he is to knock on the door, and keep the owners busy while the rest of us sneak in the back through the servants’ entrance. 

Upon reaching the back of the house we find that the door doesn’t have a lock, so we can’t pick it. It’s also barred from the inside. Trying not to draw attention to ourselves (a bit tricky since we are next to a road), Aire manages to get the door open with a dagger. People are staring at us, so we try to play it off as if we actually belong there - pretending to be servants, but I have no idea if it works. 

We enter into a well-stocked pantry, and immediately spot two dead servants on the floor. A human and a halfling, stabbed to death. This is not a good sign, and the sense of urgency escalates. Aire casts a spell to detect any magic nearby, but gets no result. I take a look at the shelves: there are lots of dried spices and preserved food in here. Thalenai hands me a couple of pickled peaches - yum! 

There are two doors out from this pantry, and we open one and enter into a kitchen. In here there are no corpses, which is a welcome sight. However, the other door leads to the entry hall, and in there there are ten dead bodies on the floor… Eight of them are wearing the same armor, they look like the private guard of the Gralhund’s, and two of them are clearly Zhentarim. This is bad! The room itself is a grand one with a big table set in the middle and a chandelier hanging above it. A fireplace is at the far wall, and above it hangs a family portrait - showcasing a couple, three children, and a dog. This must be the Gralhund family. 

We hear the sound of fighting upstairs, and as we enter the room properly, there are two Zhentarim charging us with bloody maces. Thalenai steps forward, does her barbarian thing and rages, and throws a javelin at one of the men. The man has his eyes on Aire, and hits her with his mace when he gets close enough. I take advantage of my size, crouching between Thalenai’s legs I shoot the second man in the chest. Aire launches a firebolt at the man who attacked her, but he merely chuckles as it hardly hurts him. As she moves back from him, he gets a swipe in at her. Ru shoots a dart at the man in response. The Zhentarim member that I shot yells upstairs, and warns the others that there are intruders in the house. He then hits me twice with his mace. This is the first time I’ve been hit by any attacks since I arrived in Waterdeep, and it’s not pleasant. Not one bit! 

Thalenai steps in front of us all and draws her big sword. She growls in a menacing manner, and slams it down on the man who attacked us first. We hear the dogs barking outside the servants’ entrance, trying to get in. Their master must be with them as well. The battle rages upstairs still, lucky for us no one has come downstairs. I copy Thalenai and growl (I feel cool, but it doesn’t sound as scary as when she does it), then aim, and shoot our second attacker again. He falls dead to the floor, joining his previous victims and fellow Zhentarim. Aire channels her magic and blasts a ray of frost at the remaining man, killing him. The cold fills the area around him. Ru runs upstairs to see what is happening, and a second later the houndmaster opens the door - letting himself and his two dogs inside. The houndmaster is clearly very ill, he is foaming at the mouth and talking incoherently. 

Thalenai takes up a defensive position between them and us. She swings her greatsword, slamming one of the dogs against the left wall. It falls limp to the ground. The other lunges at her, but she dodges it with ease. She yells to me and Aire to check the remaining rooms downstairs. I open one of the doors, and find two more dead guards. The room itself is a finely decorated lounge, but there is nothing of use inside it. There is a door on the far wall leading in to the next room. Aire takes the shorter route, and opens the door to that room from the hallway. Inside is a trophy room with mounted animals on the walls. On a table in the middle of the room sits a cage with a hooded hawk inside it. Aire takes a look inside, but then moves away to another room. I enter the trophy room, open the cage, and remove the hood from the hawk. It looks at me, and I feed it some dried meat. It’s not hostile, and it sits there in silence as I leave. 

Barmo slams a door open in front of me, and stands tall with a glowing golden crown on his head. I have no idea how he even got inside the house to begin with, as all the doors and windows were closed! The room behind him is a library filled with books and notes. He dashes through the hallway and summons a spectral log once again - the same thing that killed the vampire. This time however the crown on his head is what is projecting the log, and it sort of morphs into it as he channels the spell. Holy magic is really cool sometimes! Barmo sends the log at the houndmaster, who answers with his own spectral weapon, and attacks Barmo. He misses however, and seeing that he is outnumbered, he turns to open the door he entered through to run - but Thalenai pierces his back with her sword, and he falls dead to the floor. The last dog shakes its head, and runs away. 

We all rush upstairs, and find more dead Zhentarim on the floor, and three private guards still alive. They are protecting a noblewoman inside a room behind them, although she looks rather capable herself. We found the Lady of the house, it seems. She is carrying a blade, and wearing a makeshift armor. Inside the room with her is a half-orc who seems to be her personal bodyguard. Looking around we can see two more doors on the landing we are in.

Lady Gralhund addresses us, and asks why she shouldn’t have us killed right now. We try to get any information we can from her about Urstul but she tells us nothing, only that she doesn’t know who he is. I bet she would say that no matter what, though. We can hear a series of bangs from the room to the left of us, and with that the Lady of the house orders her guards to kill us before slamming the door shut. The guards look worn out from the previous battle, but obediently charge at us. Barmo heals Aire, who has been looking rough for a while. I cast Cure Wounds on myself (something I picked up a while back), and feel all good again! Ru attacks the guards with her staff, and Aire shoots a couple of scorching rays at them. Thalenai, instead of doing her usual smashing of enemies, goes to the door from which we heard the banging, and breaks it down. Inside is a human man desperately trying to get into a room beyond. She approaches him, and they exchange words. This seems to be Urstul Floxin, and Thalenai’s connections to the Zhentarim makes him trust her. At least that’s what it looks like.

We exchange blows with the guards, I manage to hit one despite the close quarters, and Barmo blesses me, Ru and Aire. Ru kills one of the guards with her staff, and Aire another with magic missiles. Thalenai breaks down the door that Urstul was working on, entering a bedroom with what appears to be a teleportation circle. Behind the bed cowers a man - Lord Gralhund. The last remaining guard surrenders on his Lord’s orders, and leaves us. This has all happened so fast, my head is almost spinning, and from the outside we hear shouts… Someone must have called the city guard.


End file.
